The N96 Without A Video Editor: A Step Backwards

If you look at the N96, everything about it screams VIDEO. The 2.8″ screen, VGA capture at 30 FPS, 16GB of storage for recording and storage, the dual LED that can be used as while recording and lastly, its box itself – from which the above picture comes. Anyone would think that Nokia has gone all in for making it into a video production and consumption monster. At least I did, before I had the following incredibly frustrating experience. My videos have not been set ‘free’.

Yesterday I set out to capture a video for the Face The Task Challenge and after shooting it, I decided to take full advantage of the N96’s WiFi and sharing capability (Share Online) by directly uploading it after giving it some minor spruce ups. Soon thereafter I recalled that Nokia had removed the video editor from the N96 for some reason. The N95 had it, but lo-behold its successor doesn’t- what a royal shame. Read on and look at the following screenshots to find out what Nokia is keeping from us.

Just by looking at the various option you can get an idea of what amazing results it can produce. Frustrated by the N96, and without a computer, I turned to my trusty N95 to deliver. The first thing I did was replace the audio to fill the video with some music instead of our voices. It barely look seconds, the video editor used an MP3 stored on the phone to quickly replace the soundtrack. Next, I added a Title and credits at the beggining and end respectively in fairly quick time and the video was ready. Within five minutes it looked much more appealing than the original.

Had Nokia removed the video editor from an Eseries device, I could have understood – but why the N96? It isn’t because of FP2, because to the N85 and even the N78 have it. Is it because Nokia felt few people ever use it? Or is it a mere policy decision? Well, the thing is that for something to be important, it doesn’t have to been in use everyday – just knowing that its there is enough.

Even the N78 and N85 have toned down variants, they can just merge, cut, change sound and add text to videos. The N95 can do that and then:

What I can’t get is that why newer phones that should be capable of more with their greater RAM are still lagging behind what an almost two year old N95 can do? Why take all of this away when putting it in means no extra effort for you Nokia? I admit, I don’t use this functionality often but from this rant I’m sure you can make out that I use it enough to be bothered by its absence. But since a lone voice hardly counts, I ask you – Do you guys use/miss it?

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25 thoughts on “The N96 Without A Video Editor: A Step Backwards”

Nokia can certainly be retarded when it comes to some of these decisions they make. The N95 8GB has no video editor at all either.

My original N93 had the editor. I shot and edited videos directly on it. When I got my N95 8GB and saw that the video editor was gone, I couldnt believe it.

Being a mobile videoblogger, the whole reason I got the N95 was because of the camera abilities. Being able to be mobile and have the option to edit my videos and upload them is the icing on the cake. I’m definitely angry they decided to remove the editor from a phone that is certainly more capable than the N93. I’m questioning whether or not my next phone will be a Nokia. Seeing what other manufactures have out there right now, I doubt I be purchasing another Nokia.

@ david… i completely disagree with you on the fact that someone can decide on a purchase based on one feature.. unless that’s the only thing one needs from a mobile…

i have been an erstwhile n95 user and have recently upgraded to n96.. i personally find it to be one of the best feature rich phones from nokia… except that the form factor could have been slightly better… v similar looking to n81. 🙁

@ vaibhav… buddy… i agree with u to an extent abt the logic of removing this picture esp for a fone that is supposed to do more than its predecessors. but i also feel that it may vary for diff individuals.. for instance,, we have so many features in built and we don’t even use half of them… like a message reader or voice mailbox… at least i don’t remember the last time i used it…

so.. i guess not having a video editor shouldn’t influence a consumer’s purchasing decision. one needs to look at it in totality. vaibhav,,, while i personally don’t hv an answer to this problem… but i think it will be a gud idea to talk about stuff that it offers as well.

i am not blindly supporting anyone just because i have been a follower for so many yrs,, but here are a few things that are awesome about the n96 …

5mp camera and tagging options
video directory option – it lets u download feeds from news channels like reutors, i use it quite often and find it v useful.
FP2 – yup.. it’s v useful.. u can time ur profile, search phone content easily, common composer for messages
video playback quality – amazing, it lives up to promise, watching movies is quite an exp
music playback is gr8 again – very imp for a phone like this.. i am sure
browsing in both landscape and potrait mode is quite cool and yes… i am impressed with the battery…

doesn’t hv a video editor??? too bad..

my only piece of advice to ppl reading this… take a decision based on the TOTAL PHONE EXPERIENCE… so… not buying a phone for not having video editor?? so.. be it.
.. i wud rather act differently…

Rohit, a video editor doesn’t really swing my decision about buying a phone and make no mistake I quite like the N96 in some aspects. If fact I had the review ready, but I decided against publishing it for the simple reason that the current firmware is crap and may be the upcoming v12 brings a better experience.

Rohit. You think you know what I want in a phone? You apparently dont understand MY needs in a phone that was chosen BECAUSE of it’s video capabilities. A video editor in my phone IS the one thing I require being a mobile videoblogger.

I’m not using video editor often, actually quite recently I started to do video with my n95. For now I could do without video editor. But the way I began to use editor I don’t think I could do without it in future. Really, I don’t understand why Nokia didn’t put editor in N96, to me it seems as a quite important feature for multimedia phone.

@Rohit- to each his own dude, there are people who buy phones because of some specific features, the features which you mentioned as ur likings can b found on most nseries or othr samsung fones, n96 is nthn but n95 wid betr memory and n81 looks. there are people who just buy phones for looks but without even knowing how to use the features

Good article! Thanks for pointing out this shortcoming of *every Nokia since the N95-3*. I use the video editor every day and yes I could live without it, but I can’t do my work without it. Thanks for posting the screenshots! Some users might not know what they’re missing out on.

I’m skipping the N85 because it does not have the video editor. I’m looking forward to seeing the video editor on the Music Express 5800, because that’s the first Touch enabled editor. But I’ll probably wait for another device with both a Carl Ziess lens and the video editor before I’ll purchase.

Yes, Rohit. It does matter to some people, even if it doesn’t matter to you.

i have a nokia 5320xm which is fp2
it has the video editor with all of the same functions as n95(not sure but from reading your post)
i have found it to be very useful indeed.
and i dont know y nokia has not included it in n96…….

well nokia some times is really acting smart and to me it’s just for maintaining sale of a phone. None of their phones is 100% complete nokia when it comes to features…n96 without a video editor is insane but i expect that there must be 3rd party apps to solve this problem.

I have the N96 and my bro has the N95, he found out about this and constantly mocks my N96’s clear dissapointing lack of video editor whenever i point out that my phone is the upgrade to his… To nokia u must realise this makes your upgrade seem in some way quite sad to be losing out in any areas to a phone thats over 2 years old now, please sort out some sort of update firmware that brings back the video editor with more than evr so i can rub it in his face! ;'(

im an avid user of mobile phones with video editing capabilities such as cool trans efx, slowmo and audio merge.. it’s so sad to learn that most of the latest phones released by nokia has none of these features.. i mean, nokia just put a very basic video editor, eg; cutting, merging, change audio and add text.. i hope they could take back the old version of video editor they use on their s60 v2 phones..